#NZBloggers Chat – Creating Captivating Headlines

I (I being Lizzy from myfoxycorner) hosted last night’s #NZBloggers chat and wanted to have a discussion around the do’s and dont’s for creating blog headlines and titles. To SEO optimise/to crack a punny joke; sometimes I just have no idea. Luckily most people have a better idea than myself and hence we had ourselves a pretty helpful and informative wee chat.

Q1. Why is a strong blog title important and what are the advantages of a catchy headline? #NZBloggers

This question was a little obvious and uncreative, but it was good to see the variety of reasons why a good headline is so important; from addressing what the post will be about; to SEO; to drawing your readers in; the primary reason that I think we all agree upon is that a good headline will make someone click. Time is a precious resource, especially in the sea of blogs that people have to sift through, so a well-crafter headline is your way to draw someone in and get eyes on your content. In other words it’s pretty damn important.

Q2 What makes an effective blog headline for you as a reader?Does it need to be creative/full of keywords/attention grabbing etc #NZBloggers — #NZbloggers (@NZbloggers) August 16, 2015

@NZbloggers I really don’t like headlines that contain hashtags. I know why people do it, but it’s reeks of trying too hard. #nzbloggers — Caffeinated Weka (@Cafe_Chick) August 16, 2015

Preference for shorter, snappier headlines that still have enough in there to give an idea about what you are about to read. And the main “don’t” that came up was Clickbait…leading quite nicely into my next question:

The general consensus was that although clickbait can be effective for things like Buzzfeed, it doesn’t belong in your blog title. Good to know. My main issue with clickbait is that they tend to either not be descriptive enough about what the article/post is about or worse, they aren’t upfront and tend to make promises to the reader that just don’t come through. I enjoyed reading this article I came across which talks about how to create headlines that encourage people to click without having to resort to clickbaiting.

Q4. How important is SEO when creating your blog title? How do you find that balance between creativity and optimisation? #NZBloggers — #NZbloggers (@NZbloggers) August 16, 2015

@NZbloggers Describe it while being creative however half the time if forget about SEO… pretty useless #nzbloggers

This was the question I was most interested in as it is something I am beginning to struggle with as my awareness of SEO increases. I think that the balance of creativity vs key word optimisation for SEO definitely depends on why you are blogging. Making your titles clear and straightforward so that they are easily picked up by search engines is great for increasing numbers, yet not so great if you are wanting to inject a bit more creativity/personality into the titles. The search for balance continues.

Q5. What is your general process when creating blog headlines?Do you tend to come up with them before or after you write a post? #NZBloggers — #NZbloggers (@NZbloggers) August 16, 2015

Coming up with your title before or after the post is written definitely varies, and there’s no right process (just the same as taking photos vs writing the content). People have their own writing methods and coming up with the title is a part of that. For me I generally have some form of a draft title before I write the post and then I can tweak it a bit more at the end.

Q6. Do you have any templates or resources you use to create headlines when you’re stuck? Kind enough to share….? #NZBloggers — #NZbloggers (@NZbloggers) August 16, 2015

@NZbloggers I like to have themed titles like “5 things” or “how to” or “day out at”, so there’s some kind of consistancy #NZBloggers